Ebola death toll rising rapidly – WHO
October 15, 2014, 1:16 am

WHO says that the number of reported infected cases will reach 9,000 in West Africa this week [Xinhua]

While just a month ago WHO had admitted that its efforts – along with a global response to combat and curb the disease – had failed and that the spread had “accelerated”, Assistant Director-General Bruce Aylward clarified on Tuesday that Ebola was now “still moving geographically, still escalating” in West Africa’s metropolitan areas.

The Ebola virus is killing at a faster rate, eventually reaching a fatality ratio of 70 per cent of the people who contract the disease, WHO also said. The death toll now stands at over 4,500 of 8,800 reported infections.

The death toll has more than doubled in the past month.

Meanwhile, airports around the world have increased screening procedures for travelers coming from West Africa after a Liberian man flew to the US and died in a Texas hospital last week.

The US-based Center for Disease Control (CDC) says it has now put in place a rapid response team to arrive in any hospital throughout the country to deal with any reported Ebola cases.

US media last week had raised the possibility that the Liberian Ebola patient had been misdiagnosed and sent home when he should have been kept in hospital, monitored and treated.

The Ebola virus, also referred to as Ebola hemorrhagic fever because of one of its most visible symptoms, is an incurable disease with a very high fatality rate. It was first identified in 1976.

Some doctors have noted a fatality rate of at least 60 per cent, but WHO says that can be as high as 90 per cent.

Symptoms can appear as early as two days (and as late as three weeks) from infection and first include headaches, sudden weakness, severe fever and chills, throat and muscle pains. This is followed by vomiting and diarrhea.

The virus is known to debilitate multiple organ systems, leading to bleeding – or hemorrhaging.

The virus is believed to have originated in fruit bats in Africa; they are considered natural carriers.

It can incubate for years inside infected animals without harming the host, but can quickly spread to humans who are in close contact with infected chimpanzees and other animals which inhabit tropical rainforests.

Infection can quickly spread through contact with bodily fluids – even sweat, and semen; secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals.

The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies, CDC and WHO